Today Ms Eagle released a video announcing her candidacy, featuring Labour Party members holding cards saying “I’m ready for Angela because ...” with their reasons to support the MP. The video also uses The Farm’s 1990s hit ‘All Together Now’ as its soundtrack.

Angela told the ECHO: “We have had a really heartbreaking election result and we have to examine everything – the way we organise, the culture of the party, how we reach out more, as well as ideas about how we change our country for the better.”

She said: “We have to make our values relevant to the south west as well as the north where people are listening to us and get back to parity in Scotland.”

Also competing for the deputy leadership of the Labour Party is West Bromwich MP Tom Watson, while other MPs connected with it include Ben Bradshaw, Caroline Flint and Simon Danczuk.

Angela said following the election: “We need a proper analysis of what happened – a no holds barred look at ourselves.” But she also said that the party “needs to be confident about our values”.

The MP says she is running to help “unite the Labour Party” after the election defeat.

She said Labour had “endured a total political and strategic failure” in the General Election and added: “We need to be brutally honest about what went wrong and that is why during this campaign I will travel the length and breadth of Britain to hear the views of Labour Party members and also the people who did not support us in the election to find out what we need to do two win them back.”

Ms Eagle sits on the centre left of the party and has represented the Wallasey constituency since 1992, doubling her majority in the 2015 election.

A former chair of Labour’s National Executive Committee and current chair of Labour’s National Policy Forum, she has held various ministerial stints, most recently serving as Pensions Minster under Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Since 2012 she has been Shadow Leader of the House of Commons.

Meanwhile the race for the leadership intensified further last week after shadow international development secretary Mary Creagh joined the race to succeed Ed Miliband and frontrunner Chuka Umunna withdrew from the race, leaving candidates Liz Kendall, Andy Burnham and Yvette Cooper.